Vegan Eats and Treats in Tallinn

On first thoughts Estonia didn’t strike us as veggie friendly, let alone vegan friendly. Oh how we were very very wrong. Across the four days we spent in Tallinn, we ate at various vegan restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here’s our three fave restaurants and a chocolate shop we embarrassingly went to several times:

No prizes for working out the English translation I’m afraid. I felt this place was slightly lacking the cosy feel, but nonetheless the service and food was great. It’s 100% vegan and also has many gluten free choices. We had a breakfast and dinner here and both were delish.

The house burger was a winner, comprising of a beetroot cutlet, ‘mozarella’, fried courgette and tofu ‘egg’ salad.

The neighbourhood cafe and shop situated near Kadriorg Park is not to be missed. It was rammed full of people, but still maintained a homely feel when we visited for brunch. Their focus is healthy food, so although it’s not a veggie/vegan cafe it has a handy key on their menu for veggie, lactose free and even gluten free items.

We both opted for avo on toast (we are millennials after all), with a bowl of kale ‘chips’ to share. Hands down the best avocado on toast I ever did have.

The winner of vegan food in Tallinn had to be Vegan Restoran V, located in the Old Town. This place definitely had more of a restaurant feel to it, compared with NOP and Vegan Inspiratsioon. It’s very small inside, so booking a table was essential. Somehow we managed to stumble across it and bag a table without a booking, though we saw the waitress turn away several couples after we’d sat down. This place was 10/10 for everything from service, to quality to atmosphere – do not miss this!

We shared a selection of spreads with toasted garlic ciabatta to start and both ordered a tortellini dish for mains from the specials. I cannot even describe how good this meal was.

Okay, enough about real food. Let me tell you about an absolute GEM in Tallinn. A vegan chocolate shop! Karu talu šokolaad. You need to visit here whether you’re vegan, veggie or a meat eater. Right next to the Town Hall Square, this little chocolate shop is owned by a Swedish family. The man (whose name I forget) offered us free samples, talked us through the treats and even offered us free tea and to sit down with him for a while. There was an unbelievable amount of choice, hence why we obviously had to visit several times. We even brought some back to the UK in our suitcases.

Other places we also ate vegan food at included: Kohvik Must Puudel (a retro cafe which also turns into a bar at night with live DJs) and Elevant Restoran (an Indian restaurant in the Old Town which has vegan options).

Let me know in the comments if you know of any places great for vegans in Tallinn!